In this report I will be investigating how two contrasting organisations use ICT. The two organisations I have chosen to compare are a high school, in this case Buile Hill High School, and a motorcar company, this being Ford.

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Introduction

Richard Tandy Unit 2 Description Of ICT Systems. Introduction In this report I will be investigating how two contrasting organisations use ICT. The two organisations I have chosen to compare are a high school, in this case Buile Hill High School, and a motorcar company, this being Ford. I will be looking at how ICT helps these organisations operate. I will be analysing the advantages and disadvantages of the systems these organisations use and the impact of these ICT systems within these organisations, referring to implications such as cost, working practices, and security matters such as data protection. ICT Systems in Buile Hill High School Buile Hill High School is a secondary school with approximately 1200 pupils. In this school pupils are now registered using the Bromcom system. This computerised system has replaced he existing registers that followed a manual way of working of pen and paper. With the Bromcom system teachers use a personal digital assistant (PDA) connected to a wireless network, which enables marks to be transferred to a computer in the school office. This computer automatically dials the contact number of those pupils who are not in school. In addition the Bromcom system provides reports about pupil attendance and punctuality, working out pupils attendance and lates as a percentage and also informs teachers about pupils who are not in school for reasons such as being on holiday or for having doctors appointments for example. ...read more.

Middle

Also, to use his sort of system the teachers would need reasonable ITC skills as well as access to a computer. This system has impacted on working practices and processing and gaining information such as that it has made it far easier to prepare resources and lesson plans and to carry out necessary research, which is accessible with the Internet for example, and it has also made it far easier for teachers to keep assessment data of pupils, using spreadsheets. The cost of this system would be expensive to run for the school with the Internet connection for example. Also, the initial purchase of computers and the consistent energy consumption by the computers would add to the cost and would be expensive for the school on a whole. The system is quite secure as it requires users to enter a user name and an accompanying password and so it is not so easy to abuse the system. However, there is a possibility that it may be open to hackers and so may not be secure in that sense. In the school ICT is also used by the school office to keep pupil records on the School Information Management System (SIMS). Here there is important information kept on contact details, emergency phone numbers, addresses, medical problems, timetables and photographs. An advantage of this is that you can run off or access a wide range of information relatively easily such as a pupil's attendance or pupils personal details. ...read more.

Conclusion

They can also use the details on these systems to analyse sales of particular models, which enables them to slow down production of models that aren't selling that well and vice-versa. An advantage is that it enables Ford to target potential buyers and saves them having lots of cars in stock that people don't want to buy. Ford can also mail shot particular possible buyers. Disadvantages are that any information recorded has to be accurate. Also, Information gathered needs to be from a large number of people in order to produce more realistic predictions. This system has impacted on working practices and processing and gaining information by making it much more convenient, quicker and easier to collect prospective buyer details and send promotions to these prospective buyers by using databases such as MS Access which list all the prospective buyers and their details. The initial cost and the maintenance of this system could be expensive, concerning the size of the company and additions such as PDAs, which may cost around �250 each, however, the system is vital to promote the company. The data on this system would be quite secure as it would only be the staff who would be able to access the system through security measures such as passwords. Also, the new PDAs, which are in use by many companies such as Ford, offer improved features against hacking and are so more secure. Important data transferred between PDAs may furthermore be encrypted for extra security. ...read more.

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